For many parents, the possibility of finding their baby dead in bed is cause for enormous anxiety. This devastating phenomenon is called Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) - the sudden and unexplained death of a healthy baby, usually younger than one. 

There’s very little information available on how many baby deaths in South Africa are due to SIDS, but the Boston Children’s Hospital reports that around 2,300 babies in the United States die of SIDS each year. 

A baby’s death can only be classified as SIDS if the autopsy, an investigation into the death scene and the child’s medical records show no reason for the death. Mayo Clinic suggests that SIDS occurs when there’s a defect in the part of the baby’s brain that controls breathing and allows them to arouse from sleep. It’s thought that other factors like low birth weight, exposure to cigarette smoke during and after pregnancy and prematurity also play a role.

Here are some tips on preventing SIDS: 

• Place your baby on its back, rather than its side or stomach, to sleep. 

• Don’t allow anyone to smoke around your baby. Baby’s of mothers who smoked during or after pregnancy are at a higher risk for SIDS. Second-hand exposure to smoke is also a risk factor. 

• Make sure your baby sleeps on a firm mattress, never on a pillow, couch or other soft surface. 

• Have baby sleep in your room with you in a crib or bassinet for between six and 12 months. 

• Breastfeeding your baby for at least six months, if possible, also lowers the risk of SIDS. 

• Using a pacifier or dummy may also reduce the risk of SIDS. 

• Keep the baby’s crib free of bumper pads, pillows, fluffy toys and stuffed animals. These are a suffocation and strangulation hazard. 

• Don’t overheat your baby. Consider using a sleep sack or clothing that won’t require additional blankets.